Ex-BI chief graft trial to go ahead

Andreas D. Arditya ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 07/10/2008 10:13 AM  |  Headlines

The Corruption Court ruled Wednesday it would continue the trial of former Bank Indonesia governor Burhanuddin Abdullah for the misappropriation of Rp 100 billion (US$10.9 million) from the central bank.

Presiding judge Gusrizal said the court rejected the defendant's objections to his indictment, presented last month by Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors.

"A panel of judges finds the indictment stands and orders prosecutors to continue examining the case," he said.

In 2003, Burhanuddin endorsed a decision by the BI board of directors to disburse Rp 100 billion from BI's Indonesian Banking Development Foundation (YPPI) for lawmakers and former senior BI officials.

Former deputy governors Bun Bunan Hutapea, Aslim Tadjuddin and Aulia Pohan, who is the father-in-law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's son, were also implicated in the case. They have not been named suspects.

The court will hear testimony from the three former deputy governors in the Burhanuddin trial next Wednesday.

In his defense, Burhanuddin said the disbursement of the fund was a collective decision made by the BI board of directors and that it was not a crime.

He also argued the YPPI fund was not part of BI funds and the case caused no losses to the state, adding the money distributed to the five former BI officials were loans from the foundation.

The judges rejected his arguments, saying the questions of whether the decision was a crime and whether the disbursement caused state losses were matters for further trials.

According to the KPK, about Rp 31.5 billion of the money was distributed to members of the then House of Representatives Commission IX overseeing finance to support the commission's work in resolving the BI liquidity support (BLBI) cases and amending the law on the central bank.

The remaining Rp 68.5 billion was given to five former senior BI officials who had been implicated in BLBI corruption cases.

The KPK alleged the money was given out through former BI legal affairs deputy Oey Hoey Tiong and former head of the BI communications bureau Rusli Simanjuntak.

The two are standing trial in the same court.

The KPK is preparing to bring to trial two former lawmakers of Commission IX, Hamka Yandhu and Antony Zeidra Abidin, who allegedly received part of the money.

Antony's lawyer Maqdir Ismail said Wednesday his client had denied accepting money from BI, although he admitted to having distributed it to other lawmakers.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.